DJ Set - 29 February 2020 at 18:26

Rescue

The Meltdown. It’s a bold, brassy, twangy steam train of bumping backbeats and swinging shuffles. Then there’s that voice. Sweet as honey. The voice is soul, but it’s country too and something else indefinable; like you heard it before but don’t know where… Introducing Better Days, The Meltdown’s first release on HopeStreet Recordings.

There’s a fair chance you haven’t heard that voice before, because for the last few years Simon Burke has been flying small planes out of small airfields in the dusty backcountry and taking refuge from the hustle and grind of the music business to raise a young family. The time off has been fruitful. A lifetime of writing and experience is condensed into a golden set of songs and a killer new band, The Meltdown, which Simon formed in collaboration with saxophonist and arranger Lachlan McLean. Great vibe, great players, great sound, but it’s the songs that are king here.

There are a lot of soul revival bands around, but the Meltdown’s angle is different  – Simon and Lachlan are both pretty country and The Meltdown has more than a bit of that Ray Charles country via gospel thing, and a taste of dirty blues in it too. Echoes of towns like Euroa and Avenel, where the boys blew in from, or just artistic license? Either way, if there’s one thing that soul and country can both do for you, it’s songs about heartbreak, so here’s some rippers. Ladies and gentlemen, let us introduce to you the inimitable voice and songwriting of Mr Simon Burke. And yes, in advance, you’re welcome.

BUY VINYL/DIGITAL

The Meltdown - Such A Fool

Made "Peace Matters More (The Only Wish Worth Making)" last summer, as a birthday wish prayer song kinda thing... EPx7 flows Indie ❯ Burlesque ❯ Jazz ❯ Dub 🕊️🎶

Cover art #peace disclaimer: 
this is not an afro style cover ❨ it's a dandelion wish blower ❩ 🌬️ #makeawish 

@banasutra #lyrics

[Verse 1]
Hey, hi, between you and me
Birthdays don’t mean much, honestly
But I’ve got a wish I can’t keep in
So I’m letting it out, soft but clear within

Not for things, not for praise
Just one truth I feel these days

[Chorus]
Peace that grows from trust
Not power, fear, or hush
No mask, no game, no war disguised as law
Just peace that grows from trust
And honest is always a must
In my book of joy, that’s what matters more
Yeah, peace matters more.

[Verse 2]
If you’re cheering on cruel men in suits
Twisting lies into law like forbidden fruit
If you still think silence means you’re wise
Then you might be mistaking peace for disguise

I won’t fight… but I won’t pretend
I choose peace that doesn’t bend.

[Chorus]
Peace that grows from trust
Not power, fear, or hush
No mask, no game, no war disguised as law
Just peace that grows from trust
And honest is always a must
In my book of joy, that’s what matters more
Yeah, peace matters more.

[Bridge] 
It takes courage to ask
Humility to hear
To reach through the awkward
Instead of disappear
So if you’re unsure, just knock on the door
’Cause peace don’t bloom when we keep the score.

[Final Chorus]
Peace that grows from trust
No echo chamber hush
No gaslit grin pretending not to see
Just peace that grows from trust
Where curiosity’s enough
To build a better “we”,
That’s what matters more to me. 



[04] Peace Matters More - GROWsutra Gipsy Circus BURLESQUE

Nova Tunes 3.4

The Crave (feat. Napoleon Maddox)

Klyne

Water Flow

100 Days, 100 Nights

Victim of Love

Let Love Stand a Chance (feat. Menahan Street Band)

I Learned the Hard Way

Give It Back

Better Things

No Time For Dreaming

Heartaches and Pain (feat. Menahan Street Band)

Look Closer

Hot Shot

Late Nights & Heartbreak

Dazed and Confused

This land is your land, This land is my land

Though it has often been co-opted as a benignly patriotic campfire sing-a-long, "This Land Is Your Land" was actually written by Woody Guthrie in 1944 as a subversive protest song in biting response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America." At my sister Samra's urging, we recorded our version in 2004, during the George W. Bush presidency, in an effort to re-establish it as a song about social justice.

Ironically, when Woodie Guthrie resided in Coney Island in 1950, his landlord was none other than Donald Trump's father, the infamously racist real estate mogul Fred Trump, about whom Guthrie composed his poem "Old Man Trump," including the lines:

     I suppose that Old Man Trump knows just how much racial hate
     He stirred up in that bloodpot of human hearts
     When he drawed that color line
     Here at his Beach Haven family project 

Using a dark re-harmonization of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" as an intro, the Dap-Kings re-arranged "This Land" as a rough blues-y march, setting the tone for Sharon to tear into the lyrics of the song with the fiery gusto of a revolutionary. However, it was the inclusion of Guthrie's rarely-heard original verses that really enabled Sharon to reclaim the song as an urgent and unambiguous demand for equality and human dignity in a nation rife with social injustice and patriotic hypocrisy.

Today, as we inaugurate a rapacious billionaire to the highest office in the land, those original verses resonate with us as loudly as the day they were written:

     There was a big high wall there
     That tried to stop me
     The sign was painted
     Said 'Private Property'
     But on the backside
     It didn't say nothing
     This land was made for you and me

     One bright sunny morning
     In the shadow of the steeple 
     By the relief office 
     I saw my people 
     As they stood hungry
     I stood there wondering 
     If God Blessed America for me

We are grateful to Woodie Guthrie and to Sharon Jones, two friends of the people and bitter foes of the Trumps, who have given us an essential soundtrack to our struggle. When times get dark, let us not crumble in fear and bigotry. Let us honor the unbreakable spirit of those tireless fighters who have fallen before us. Let us rise to the fight, and let us help each other never to forget this noble truth:

    This land was made for you and me.

-Gabe Roth

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings "This Land Is Your Land"

1970

My Lady

A Change Is Gonna Come

A Change Is Gonna Come (feat. Gary Clark Jr.)

Alysha Brilla is a 3X Juno Award nominated artist, multi-instrumentalist and music producer who writes and produces her own music as well as for other artists. Brilla also works with youth and collaborates in arts therapy workshops resulting in healing through expression. Brilla is an advocate for female and non-binary producers and creators in the music industry and the world.

Rescue

Alysha Brilla

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